From time to time the replica has appeared in various railroad pageants, including those at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 ([figure 14]) and 1940, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948. Otherwise, it can be seen on exhibition at Honesdale, the scene of the trials of the original Stourbridge Lion.
Peter Cooper and Phineas Davis
No original parts remain of one of the best known early locomotives, the Tom Thumb. A full sized operable replica ([figure 15]), however, was made in 1926 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. for use in their exhibit that year at the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition. It has since appeared at the Fair of the Iron Horse, held at Halethorpe, near Baltimore, in the fall of 1927, the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934, the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949. Its permanent home is in Baltimore, at the Baltimore and Ohio Transportation Museum.
A small nonoperable model of the Tom Thumb, about 2 feet long ([figure 16]), made in the National Museum in 1890 (USNM 204581), is exhibited in the collection of the Museum. Other small models of it appear in the B & O Museum. One of these, a ¼-inch-scale model recently made under the direction of Lawrence W. Sagle of the B & O Museum, differs somewhat from the usually accepted idea of the Tom Thumb.
Notably, the smokestack is not straight, but has an elbow at its upper end, and the belt-driven blower is located there rather than on the floor of the machine as in the replica and the other models. Peter Cooper, the New York engineer and inventor who constructed the original Tom Thumb as an experiment in the winter of 1829-1830, mentioned this upper location of the blower in a speech delivered many years later, in 1875, and quoted in Bulletin 73 of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society (1948, pp. 50-52).
The little locomotive, with its vertical boiler made of rifle barrels, looked rather like the larger locomotive of John Stevens of only several years earlier but had considerably smaller wheels, these being only 30 inches in diameter.
Although a 3¼-inch bore for its vertical 1-cylinder engine is given by most writers, Jonathan Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio, in the fourth annual report of the company (for 1830, p. 35) gives the figure as 3½. Unfortunately, he does not mention the stroke, which is usually given elsewhere as either 14¼ or 14½ inches. The bore and stroke of the replica were made 5 and 27 inches so as to give it sufficient power to operate satisfactorily. For that matter, in the interest of sturdiness and suitable operation the replica is somewhat larger in all respects and considerably heavier than the original. It operates on a steam pressure of 90 pounds per square inch, and it is reported that the original did likewise.
Figure 15.—Full sized operable replica of Cooper’s Tom Thumb, built in 1926 by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co.
